December 30, 2008

One area where it makes a lot of sense to preserve an end-to-end flow of XML data is with XForms applications. In other words, it makes sense to use XForms to implement electronic forms and then to store the information from those forms in a native XML database. This is an area where IBM has seen quite a lot of activity, particularly in various government environments. IBM has implemented electronic forms for gathering procurement information in large government departments, for gathering tax information from consumers and businesses, and for gathering social services information.

Along the way, IBM has developed expertise, best practices, and some useful tools. Here are some articles you may find interesting:

December 26, 2008

IBM recently released the Beta of DB2 Express-C for the Mac. This means that IBM’s native XML storage capability—DB2 pureXML—is now available on the Mac.

This release of DB2 on the Mac is a direct response to the growing community of developers who are choosing Mac OS X as their operating system of choice. These developers are using languages like Ruby, Python, and PHP and want to be able to use DB2 pureXML in their native Mac environment.

There is no charge for DB2 Express-C, and there are no limits to the amount of data you have. So DB2 Express-C is ideal for many development projects. You can download the Beta release of DB2 for the Mac from the DB2 Express-C download page.

December 3, 2008

I just found out that more than 55,000 people have entered the XML challenge so far. Remember that some contests in the challenge are run on a monthly basis, so there is still an opportunity to win prizes. And I understand that there are still more than $50,000 in prizes that have yet to be won in US and Canada. I also heard that the organizers still have t-shirts to give away for people who simply enter the contest in the US. But these are running out fast, so don’t waste any time with your entry.

The two programming-oriented contests in the challenge actually opened on the 1st of December in the US (there are separate contests in different countries). Entries can be sent in until the 31st of January. Good luck with your entries…